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Publication Series No. 2, October, 1904. » 

\<&rtf< THE 

Underhill and Townsend Families 



A HISTORICAL SKETCH 



HON. LSAAC TOWNSEND SMITH. 

Delivered at the Ninth Annual Meeting of the Underhill Society of 
America, held at Friends' Meeting House, East 20th Street, 
(Gramercy Park), Manhattan, N. Y. city, on Saturday, May 18th, 
1901. being the 271st Anniversary of the arrival of Captain John 
Underhill in the ship "Mary & John," in Boston Harbor. 



PUBLISHED BY THE 

UNDERHILL SOCIETY OF AMERICA 

400 South Third street, Brooklyn, N. Y. city 

PRICE 10 CENTS PER COPY 



The bay of Massachusetts is a noble inlet of the sea. In 
heroic incident from an early period of our history it pre- 
sents a brilliant and romantic chapter, unequalled in the 
annals of any other section of the Atlantic seaboard, and 
although a small part of the United States, it is a large and 
impressive factor in the history of the country. It. was this 
magnificent expanse of water that gave the name of Bay 
State to Massachusetts. 

Sheltered by the promontory of Cape Cod the first Pilgrim 
bark, the Mayflower, after a tempestuous voyage, found 
anchorage and shelter in a fair haven they called Province- 
town, from whence, after repair to their shattered vessel, 
and exploring and examining the coast, they sailed across 
the bay, made a landing and settlement, which they called 
Plymouth. 

On the northern side of the bay, at Cape Ann, stands a 
lighthouse, which, with another opposite at Cape Cod, like 
mighty gate-posts, Pillars of Hercules, are conspicuous 



beacons, by day and guides by night to ships outward bound, 
or inward to ports within the bay. 

Fringed along its shores since the advent of the May- 
flower, there have risen cities and towns of more or less in- 
terest and importance. Of such is Salem, which became 
eminent as a literary center and for its commercial activity 
during many years of its early history; and Gloucester, long 
famous for its fisheries ; and Marblehead, with its secure 
harbor, into which the frigate Constitution ran, when in the 
War of 1 8 12 she was chased by the British fleet; and Hing- 
ham, which was noted in its early days for its manufacture 
of buckets and brooms; and L,ynn, celebrated for its shoes — 
"Everybody in Lynn," it was said, "made shoes except the 
Minister," "he made boots," went one better. But if you 
saw those places today, with their beautiful, costly 
residences, you would hardly suppose that "buckets and 
brooms" and "boots and shoes" had done it; and Newport 
and Swampscott, Nahant and Beverly, all have been engaged 
in commerce, and were also, with the other towns named, 
nurseries for seamen in the War of the Revolution and that 
of 1812. 

And there, too, is Marshfield, memorable as the summer 
home in the lifetime, and now the resting place of the 
honored remains of Daniel Webster ; and Plymouth, the 
settlement and home of the first company of one hundred 
Pilgrims, of whom one half died from their hardships and 
sufferings the first year, the most of them in one-fourth of 
that time, and when the ship went back in May, not one of 
the little band returned in her, they devotedly stood by each 
other. No man can read of the heroic devotion of this little 
band without supreme emotion. Rufus Choate, after visit- 
ing their burial-place, thus describes it: — 

" It was on a bank somewhat elevated near and looking 
upon the waves, a symbol of what life had been to them, 
ascending inland and above the rock, symbol also of the 
'Rock of Ages,' on which the dying had rested in the final 
hour; there were buried, the first Governor, and Rose, the 
wife of Miles Standish. 'You will go to them,' said Rob- 
inson, 'they cannot come to you ' " 

And at the head of the bay is the City of Boston. The 
golden dome of the State House, the stately edifices, 
steeples, pinnacles, parks and Common, proclaim it to be the 
capital of the grand old Bay State, the Commonwealth of 
Massachusetts, built on three hills, Beacon Hill, Fort Hill 
and Copp's Hill, where I was born on March the twelfth, 
1 81 3. Opposite north, across Charles river, are Charles- 
town and the Navy Yard, and Bunker Hill with its 
monumental shaft pointing heavenward. The topography 
of the shore of the Bay is aptly described in the folk-lore of 
my boyhood days : 

The Society 



"Marblehead is a rocky place, 
Cape Cod is all sandy. 
Boston is a handsome place, 
Yankee doodle dandy." 

Very different from this picture of comfort and wealth 
of today, was the aspect to the weather-beaten Pilgrims, as 
they entered the bay on that bleak December day in 1620. 
There was neither lighthouse, beacon nor buoy to mark the 
channel and indicate the course to steer ; it is a perilous 
undertaking even now, with a pilot and light ship, and one 
of their vessels, following the ''Mayflower," was wrecked 
off Cape Cod. The vessel grounded on a sandy shoal, from 
which she could not be floated. The sand speedily washed 
about and over her. The passengers and crew, with cargo, 
were taken by boats to Provincetown, where the "May- 
flower" had found shelter. This imprisoned ship, thus 
interred under the sand, hermetically sealed for about two 
hundred and fifty years, was, by the turn of the current of 
the ocean returning to its original channel, released from its 
long confinement. She came up sound as a nut to the 
astonishment of the people of Provincetown. After some 
battling with the billows, they succeeded in securing the 
hull entire by taking it apart, and bringing it to land. This 
vessel, a relic of the past, excited great interest. It was 
taken to Boston, put together for exhibition and set up on 
the Common, where I saw it, went aboard, and walked the 
deck where the old pilgrims had walked, and sat in the cabin 
of a vessel that had teen, so to say, a consort of the 
"Mayflower." 

Among those who came to Boston in the Pilgrim ships 
with Governor Winthrop was Captain John Uuderhill, on 
April 7th, 1630, under an agreement to train the militia of 
this new settlement and make plans for public protection. 
Captain John Underhill was to this Colony what Miles 
Standish was to Plymouth. Boston gave Captain John 
Underhill a pension for his services against the Indians in 
1643. He left Boston and came to New York under con- 
victions of duty. 

Winthrop brought grave charges against Roger 
Williams. This Underhill could not brook, and was so 
incensed that, with others, he remonstrated with the 
authorities, and withVane, a Puritan of the Puritans, warmly 
supported Mrs. Anne Hutchinson and her brother-in-law, 
the pious John Wheelwright, who arrived in 1634 from 
Atford, near Boston, England. Public sentiment is now 
emphatically with Captain Underhill, Roger Williams and 
Mrs. Anne Hutchinson, in their views of freedom of thought 
and speech on matters pertaining to church and state affairs. 
Whittier writes of Captain Underhill: — 



He coveted not his neighbor's lands, 

From the holding of bribes he shook his hands, 

And through the camp of the heathen ran, 

A wholesome fear of the valiant man. 

He cheered his heart as he rode along, 

With the sacred Scripture and holy song. 

In my investigation of the genealogical record of the 
Underhill Family I find much to interest me. 

Captain John Underhill, by his second wife, had five 
children, one of whom, a daughter Deborah, married Henry 
Townseud. My mother was a Townsend, by the branch of 
the family that settled in Massachusetts. All the American 
Townsends are allied, being descended from one stock, that 
of Admiral Roger Townsend, who went with his own ship 
into the fight aganist the Spanish Armada , and was knighted 
on board his ship for gallant and distinguished services. 

I find the records still further interesting — that another 
daughter of Captain Underhill, Elizabeth, married Isaac 
Smith, of Hempstead, L. I., which brings my entire name, 
Isaac Townsend Smith into this family record. My branch 
of Smiths, also from England, settled in New Hampshire, 
"an excellent place to be born," Mr Webster, having been 
himself born there, said, " provided you leave it soon 
enough." My father left New Hampshire early in life, 
went to Boston, where he married Eliza Townsend. He 
became a prosperous merchant and left a good estate, and 
reared a family of six children, of whom I am the only 
survivor. I feel therefore, without studying up the pedigree 
further, that I am unmistakably in the Underhill Family, 
as a cousin certainly, although perhaps a distant one. I at 
one time invited a young Chinaman, a literary man, to dine 
with me; the following day he came promptly and brought 
with him another of his countrymen. They looked so much 
alike, with their almond shaped eyes, long black queues, 
yellow skin, aud shoes shaped like a Chinese junk, that I 
said, "Your brother?" "No," said he; then I asked "Your 
cousin?" "Yes, yes," he replied, with a merry twinkle of 
the eye, "sixty-seventh." Within a radius of sixty seven, I 
may then venture to believe that I have a name and a place 
within the circle of the Underhill Family. 

The Underhills are an old English family and were of 
standing and character long before heraldry was established 
in England. Heraldry was originated by Henry V. in 1419. 
But early as 1274 the name of William Underhill appears in 
a commission appointed by Henry III., and continued by 
Edward I., to inquire into the landed possessions of the 
kiugdom. In 1500 we find Robert Winter conveying 
property in Huningham to John Underhill, on the river 
Trams, four miles from Kennelworth in Warwickshire. 
This John Underhill (son of Thomas) married Anne, 



daughter of Robert Winter, an heiress, whose son Edward 
was grandfather to John Underbill of America. He went 
to London and was made a gentleman pensioner. 

During the reign of Elizabeth the Underhills were in 
great prosperity and employed in confidential offices ; they 
became connected w'.th. s> m of the best families, and at- 
tained the honors of knighthood. Sir Edward Underhill 
was knighted in January, 1612. He was High Sheriff 
1637-38. 

Many literary productions have emanated from the 
Underhill Family. Win. Underhill was Secretary and one 
of Queen Mary's Board of Gentlemen Pensioners, who were 
chosen from the flower of England's nobility and gentry, 
and during the whole of Elizabeth's reign to serve in its 
ranks was a distinction worthy the ambition of young men 
of the highest families and most brilliant prospe.ts. And all 
the way down the pages of history I find that Underbills 
filled the offices of Barons, Bishops, Queen's Chaplains, 
Magistrates, Secretaries, and other positions of honor and 
confidence. 

Sir John Underhill was the friend and companion of 
Lord Leicester, and he was sent from Holland by Lord 
Leicester to Queen Elizabeth with confidential communica- 
tions, with which it was said a romance was connected. 



THE TOWNSEND FAMILY 

The family of the Townsends being by intermarriage 
connected with the Underhills, the historic position of the 
Town send Family is of interest in that connection, and to 
make the history complete. 

Upon the conquest of England by the Normans in 1066, 
the lands were parcelled out by William to the military 
leaders by whose help he was victorious. A very large 
estate on the northwesterly part of the county of Norfolk, 
in the neighborhood now called Raynham (River Home), 
became the possession or one de Haville. In 11 00 a 
gentleman by the name of Ludocishs (Louis) came from 
Normandy in the train of Henry L, and having married the 
daughter and only child of de Haville, settled upon his 
wife's paternal acres and adopted the family name of Town- 
send. These lands passed by inheritance to Townseud's 
children, and the family held them not only entire but 
largely augmented after the lapse of eight hundred years 
from the time they were granted to de Haville. 

In 1 1 S3 the head of the house was a Baron of the Court 
of Common Pleas. In 1588, when the Spanish Armada 
threatened to annihilate Protestantism and the power of 
Elizabeth at one blow, Roger Townsend, the owner of the 



estates, was a celebrated sailor, and with 'Drake and 
Hawkins brought his own ships into the service of his 
sovereign. He was knighted for his gallantry by the British 
Admiral Lord Howard. 

In 1603 Robert Townsend was Knighted by King 
James I. 

The Townsends have been one of the most distinguished 
families in English history, and have numbeied in their 
ranks Secretaries of State, Lord Chief Justices, Members of 
Parliament, Lord Lieutenants of Ireland, and Peers of the 
Realm, and have been distinguished in the Army as 
Generals and Governors of forts ; in the Navy, besides the 
first naval hero Roger Townsend of Armada fame, there 
have been Admirals of the White and Admirals of the Blue. 
George Townsend took to a maritime life and distinguished 
himself in several actions during the war with France, 1724. 
As Commodore of a squadron of His Majesty's ships in the 
West Indies, he took a large fleet of French merchant ships; 
in 1765 he was appointed Admiral of the White and in 1766 
Admiral of the Blue. 

Augustus Townsend made several voyages to China as 
Supercargo and Captain in the service of the East India 
Company, in which situation he died at Batavia in the 
Island of Java about 1766. In the like manner, as Super- 
cargo of a ship in those far off seas I went into Batavia in 
1835, and like my kinsman Augustus Townsend was taken 
sick of fever and went to the hospital, but more fortunate 
than my predecessor and cousin, I recovered sufficiently to 
to b2 taken aboard my ship, then ready for sea, and on the 
voyage home regained my health. 

John Townsend was elected to Parliament, and went 
with the Earl of Essex to the invasion of the Spanish 
possessions; in 1606 was knighted. He became a leading 
member of Parliament. 

The next Sir Roger Townsend was created a Baronet 
by King James I., in 16 17. In the third year of the reign 
of Charles I. he was elected one of the Knights of the County 
of Norfolk and Sheriff of the County. He built a grand 
stately mansion at Raynham, the family seat. He died in 
1630, age 41. 

Sir Horatio Townsend as soon as he was of age took 
part in public affairs, and attained great influence from his 
wisdom and sagacity. Lord Clarendon said that he used his 
noble wealth and credit in furnishing arms and ammunition 
for the King's service. Lord Willoughby and others of 
influence were drawn to his side, and King James II., in 
appreciation of his services, advanced him to the dignity of 
a Peer of the Realm by the title of Baron of Lynn in 1661, 
and shortly after constituted him Lord Lieutenant of the 
County of Norwich, and further advanced him to the title of 



Viscount Townsend of Raynham. On his death in 1687, 
his son, second Viscount Charles Townsend, took his seat in 
the House of Peers, December 3rd, 1697, and in 1702 was 
constituted Lord Lieutenant of the City and County of Nor- 
folk; and in 1709 with the Duke of Marlboro was appointed 
plenipotentiary to treat for peace with France. In 17 14 he 
was sworn as principal Secretary of State ; in 171 6 he 
resigned the Seal of Secretary of State, and in 1718 was 
appointed Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, which he declined. 
In 1720 he was appointed President of the Council, and the 
same year one of the Lord Justices, and again made 
principal Secretary of State, and in 1723 one of the Lord 
justices of Great Britain, and in 1724 appointed Knight of 
the Most Noble Order of the Garter and was installed at 
Windsor. He attende 1 the Kin*' at Hanover, and peace 
being settled in Europe, he retired to his family seat at 
Norfolk. 

Charles Townshencl* married Caroline, sister of the Duke 
of Argyle. He was one of the most distinguished statesmen 
and orators Englaud ever produced. Edmund Burke said 
of him — "Pie was the idol of the House of Commons and 
the ornament of every social circle which he honored with 
his presence." It was said that he could carry the house 
when Burke failed to move it. 

In direct descent from this Charles Townshend and 
Caroline of Argyle his wife is the present Marquis Town- 
shend, who is first cousin to Her Royal Highness the 
Duchess of Fife, the daughter of King Edward VII. 

The Marquisite of Townshend is one of the most 
ancient as well as the most distinguished in England. 

The first marquisate « as that of Westminister, created 
about the year 1500 That of Linsdowne was the second, 
and that of Townshend the third, so that the present Peer 
takes precedence of all the others except the two mentioned. 

In connection with our own history, it is a curious fact 
that the Charles Townshend who as Chancellor of the 
Exchequer advocated the passage of the stamp act and the 
tax on tea, was on my side the tory ancestor of my children, 
while on the side of their mother (Elizabeth Palmer 
Putnam) their great grandfather was the patriot Major 
Joseph Pierce Palmer who, as one of the leaders of the famous 
Boston Tea Party, threw the shipload of taxed tea overboard 
in Boston Harbor December 16, 1773. He was the son of 
Major General Palmer, President of the first Revolutionary 
Congress in Boston. 

In the record of the Underhill Family we have seen 
that a connection with the Towusends was made by a 
daughter of Captain John Underhill marrying Henry 
Townsend. We now find in the records of the Long Island 

* The name is usually spelled in England Townshend, in the U. S., Townsend. 



Townsends that Malcom Townsend married Emma Virginia 
Cox, a descendant of Samuel Cox who married Anne 
Underhill, making a double connection. 

The Townseuds in the United States emigrated from 
Norfolk, England, from 1630 to 1635. They brought with 
them the zeal that had inspired their kinsmen to noble deeds 
against Spain in the latter part of the preceding century. 
They held indeed the most advanced sentiments of that day 
and sympathized with Roger Williams and Anne Hutchinson 
and others, and were not in harmony with the persecuting 
spirits in the colony. Brooks Adams, in his Emancipation of 
Massachusetts, states that Roger Williams' controversy with 
the authorities was two-fold. He maintained that the land 
of the Indians should not be taken without purchase. The 
old Puritans held that the earth was the garden of the 
Lord, and peculiarly the heritage of the saints, that they 
were the saints, and wherever they saw land that was not 
fenced and waving with corn, they had a right to take it. 

Roger Williams said, "Nay, no more than they had to 
go into a gentleman's park in England, and occupy a part 
of it." His views on church order were also obnoxious. He 
maintained that a Church should be composed of believers 
and that unconscious infants were not fit subjects. He was 
accordingly banished. In protest against religious 

persecution the Underhills and Townseuds appear to have 
been in sympathy and stood together. 

It is interesting to those holding liberal views to note 
the change of sentiment in Massachusetts as shown by the 
recent Legislature, which rescinded the obnoxious acts and 
passed another rehabilitating those who were banished. It 
is to the credit of the State to remove that stain upon its 
character, although futile to relieve the unfortunate victims 
of its persecution. 

Are these memorial observances of distinguished family 
history of any interest and importance to the community at 
large ? Certainly, very much so in the instruction and 
stimulus it gives to patriotic deeds. A community is made 
of individuals, and I need not say that the better the quality 
of the individual the more excellent and enduring are the 
institutions of the country. 

These grand men are the foundation and framework on 
which the social and political fabric may securely rest. 
Coming down from generation to generation with a history 
of public virtue and private worth, a community may well 
feel favored to have with them such examples as guarantees 
of the stability of their institutions. 

We find among the descendants of the Townsend family 
the name of Governor Alonzo B. Cornell of Ithaca, in the 
State of New York, a most valuable public spirited citizen 
— the son of Ezra Cornell, founder of Cornell University. 



Publication Series No. 2, October, 1904. 

^ b ~Jk THE 

Underhill and Townsend Families 

A HISTORICAL SKETCH 



HON. ISAAC TOWNSEND SMITH. 

i| 

Delivered at the Ninth Annual Meeting of the Underhill Society of 
America, held at Friends' Meeting House, East 20th Street, 
(Gramercy Park), Manhattan, N. Y. city, on Saturday, May 18th, 
1901. being the 271st Anniversary of the arrival of Captain John 
Underhill in the ship "Mary & John," in Boston Harbor. 



PUBLISHED BY THE 

UNDERHILL SOCIETY OF AMERICA 

400 South Third street, Brooklyn, N. Y. city 

PRICE 10 CENTS PER COPY 



The bay of Massachusetts is a noble inlet of the sea. In 
heroic incident from an early period of our history it pre- 
sents a brilliant and romantic chapter, unequalled in the 
annals of any other section of the Atlantic seaboard, and 
although a small part of the United States, it is a large and 
impressive factor in the history of the country. It was this 
magnificent expanse of water that gave the name of Bay 
State to Massachusetts. 

Sheltered by the promontory of Cape Cod the first Pilgrim 
bark, the Mayflower, after a tempestuous voyage, found 
anchorage and shelter in a fair haven they called Province- 
town, from whence, after repair to their scattered vessel, 
and exploring and examining the coast, they ... ' 1 °d across 
the bay, made a landing and settlement, which thc„ ^alled 
Plymouth. 

On the northern side of the bay, at Cape Ann, stauGo 
lighthouse, which, with another opposite at Cape Cod, like 
mighty gate-posts, Pillars of Hercules, are conspicuous 



LofC. 



beacons by day and guides by night to ships outward bound, 
or inward to porfe within the bay. 

Fringed along its shores since the advent of the May- 
flower, there have risen cities and towns of more or less in- 
terest and importance. Of such is Salem, which became 
eminent as a literary center and for its commercial activity 
during many years of its early history; and Gloucester, long 
famous for its fisheries ; and Marblehead, with its secure 
harbor, into which the frigate Constitution ran, when in the 
War of 1 8 12 she was chased by the British fleet; and Hing- 
ham, which was noted in its early days for its manufacture 
of buckets and brooms; and Lynn, celebrated for its shoes — 
"Everybody in L,ynn," it was said, "made shoes except the 
Minister," "he made boots," went one better. But if you 
saw those places today, with their beautiful, costly 
residences, you would hardly suppose that " buckets and 
brooms" and "boots and shoes" had done it; and Newport 
and Swampscott, Nahant and Beverly, all have been engaged 
in commerce, and were also, with the other towns named, 
nurseries for seamen in the War of the Revolution and that 
of 1812. 

And there, too, is Marshfield, memorable as the summer 
home in the lifetime, and now the resting place of the 
honored remains of Daniel Webster ; and Plymouth, the 
settlement and home of the first company of one hundred 
Pilgrims, of whom one half died from their hardships and 
sufferings the first year, the most of them in one-fourth of 
that time, and when the ship went back in May, not one of 
the little baud returned in her, they devotedly stood bj- each 
other. No man can read of the heroic devotion of this little 
band without supreme emotion. Rufus Choate, after visit- 
ing their burial-place, thus describes it: — 

" It was on a bank somewhat elevated near and looking 
upon the waves, a symbol of what life had been to them, 
ascending inland and above the rock, symbol also of the 
'Rock of Ages,' on which the dying had rested in the final 
hour; there were buried, the first Governor, and Rose, the 
wife of Miles Standish. 'You will go to them,' said Rob- 
inson, 'they cannot come to you ' " 

And at the head of the bay is the City of Boston. The 
golden dome of the State House, the stately edifices, 
steeples, pinnacles, parks and Common, proclaim it to be the 
capital of the grand old Bay State, the Commonwealth of 
Massachusetts, built on three hills, Beacon Hill, Fort Hill 
and Copp's . Hill, where I was born on March the twelfth, 
1 81 3. Opposite north, across Charles river, are Charles- 
town and the Navy Yard, and Bunker Hill with its 
monumental shaft pointing heavenward. The topography 
of the shore of the Bay is aptly described in the folk-lore of 
my boyhood days : 

Aw; ; 

30 K 



"Marblehead is a rocky place, 
Cape Cod is all sandy. 
Boston is a handsome place, 
Yankee doodle dandy." 

Very different from this picture of comfort and wealth 
of today, was the aspect to the weather-beaten Pilgrims, as 
they entered the bay on that bleak December day in 1620. 
There was neither lighthouse, beacon nor buoy to mark the 
channel and indicate the course to steer ; it is a perilous 
undertaking even now, with a pilot and light ship, and one 
of their vessels, following the ''Mayflower," was wrecked 
off Cape Cod. The vessel grounded on a sandy shoal, from 
which she could not be floated. The sand speedily washed 
about and over her. The passengers and crew, with cargo, 
were taken by boats to Provincetown, where the "May- 
flower" had found shelter. This imprisoned ship, thus 
interred under the sand, hermetically sealed for about two 
hundred and fifty years, was, by the turn of the current of 
the ocean returning to its original channel, released from its 
long confinement. She came up sound as a nut to the 
astonishment of the people of Provincetown. After some 
battling with the billows, they succeeded in securing the 
hull entire by taking it apart, and bringing it to land. This 
vessel, a relic of the past, excited great interest. It was 
taken to Boston, put together for exhibition and set up on 
the Common, where I saw it, went aboard, and walked the 
deck where the old pilgrims had walked, and sat in the cabin 
of a vessel that had been, so to say, a consort of the 
"Mayflower." 

Among those who came to Boston in the Pilgrim ships 
with Governor Winthrop was Captain John Underhill, on 
April 7th, 1630, under an agreement to train the militia of 
this new settlement and make plans for public protection. 
Captain John Underhill was to this Colony what Miles 
Standish was to Plymouth. Boston gave Captain John 
Underhill a pension for his services against the Indians in 
1643. He left Boston and came to New York under con- 
victions of duty. 

Winthrop brought grave charges against Roger 
Williams. This Underhill could not brook, and was so 
incensed that, with others, he remonstrated with the 
authorities, and withVane, a Puritan of the Puritans, warmly 
supported Mrs. Anne Hutchinson and her brother-in-law, 
the pious John Wheelwright, who arrived in 1634 from 
Atford, near Boston, England. Public sentiment is now 
emphatically with Captain Underhill, Roger Williams and 
Mrs. Anne Hutchinson, in their view r s of freedom of thought 
and speech on matters pertaining to church and state affairs. 
Whittier writes of Captain Underhill: — 



He coveted not his neighbor's lands, 

From the holding of bribes he shook his hands, 

And through the camp of the heathen ran, 

A wholesome fear of the valiant man. 

He cheered his heart as he rode along, 

With the sacred Scripture and holy song. 

In my investigation of the genealogical record of the 
Underhill Family I find much to interest me. 

Captain John Underhill, by his second wife, had five 
children, one of whom, a daughter Deborah, married Henry 
Townsend. My mother was a Townsend, by the branch of 
the family that settled in Massachusetts. All the American 
Townsends are allied, being descended from one stock, that 
of Admiral Roger Townsend, who went with his own ship 
into the fight aganist the Spanish Armada, and was knighted 
on board his ship for gallant and distinguished services. 

I find the records still further interesting — that another 
daughter of Captain Underhill, Elizabeth, married Isaac 
Smith, of Hempstead, L,. I., which brings my entire name, 
Isaac Townsend Smith into this family record. My branch 
of Smiths, also from England, settled in New Hampshire, 
"an excellent place to be born," Mr Webster, having been 
himself born there, said, " provided you leave it soon 
enough." My father left New Hampshire early in life, 
went to Boston, where he married Eliza Townsend. He 
became a prosperous merchant and left a good estate, and 
reared a family of six children, of whom I am the only 
survivor. I feel therefore, without studying up the pedigree 
further, that I am unmistakably in the Underhill Family, 
as a cousin certainly, although perhaps a distant one. I at 
one time invited a young Chinaman, a literary man, to dine 
with me; the following day he came promptly and brought 
with him another of his countrymen. They looked so much 
alike, with their almond shaped eyes, long black queues, 
yellow skin, and shoes shaped like a Chinese junk, that I 
said, "Your brother?" "No," said he; then I asked "Your 
cousin?" "Yes, yes," he replied, with a merry twinkle of 
the eye, "sixty-seventh." Within a radius of sixty seven, I 
may then venture to believe that I have a name and a place 
within the circle of the Underhill Family. 

The Underhills are an old English family and were of 
standing and character long before heraldry was established 
in England. Heraldry was originated by Henry V. in 1419. 
But early as 1274 the name of William Underhill appears in 
a commission appointed by Henry III., and continued by 
Edward I., to inquire into the landed possessions of the 
kingdom. In 1500 we find Robert Winter conveying 
property in Huningham to John Underhill, on the river 
Trams, four miles from Keunelworth in Warwickshire. 
This John Underhill (son of Thomas) married Anne, 



daughter of Robert Winter, an heiress, whose son Edward 
was grandfather to John Underhill of America. He went 
to London and was made a gentleman pensioner. 

During the reign of Elizabeth the Underhills were in 
great prosperity and employed in confidential offices ; they 
beeime connected w'th s) ne of the best families, and at- 
tained the honors of knighthood. Sir Edward Underhill 
was knighted in January, 1612. He was High Sheriff 
1637-38. 

Many literary productions have emanated from the 
Underhill Family. Win. Underhill was Secretary and one 
of Queen Mary's Board of Gent'emen Pensioners, who were 
chosen from the flower of England's nobility and gentry, 
and during the whule of Elizabeth's reign to serve in its 
ranks was a distinction worthy the ambition of young men 
of the highest families and most brilliant prospects. And all 
the way down the pages of history I find that Underbills 
filled the offices of Birons, Bishops, Queen's Chaplains, 
Magistrates, Secretaries, and other positions of honor and 
confidence. 

Sir John Underhill was the friend and companion of 
Lord Leicester, and he was sent from Holland by Lord 
Leicester to Queen Elizabeth with confidential communica- 
tions, with which it was said a romance was connected. 



THE TOWNSEND FAMILY 

The family of the Townsends being by intermarriage 
connected with the Underhills, the historic position of the 
Townsend Family is of interest in that connection, and to 
make the history complete. 

Upon the conquest of England by the Normans in 1066, 
the lands were parcelled out by William to the military 
leaders by whose help he was victorious. A very large 
estate on the northwesterly part of the county of Norfolk, 
in the neighborhood now called Raynham (River Home), 
became the possession or one de Haville. In 1100 a 
gentleman by the name of Ludocishs (Louis) came from 
Normandy in the train of Henry L, and having married the 
daughter and only child of de Haville, settled upon his 
wife's paternal acres and adopted the family name of Town- 
send. These lands passed by inheritance to Townsend 's 
children, and the family held them not only entire but 
largely augmented after the lapse of eight hundred years 
from the time they were granted to de Haville. 

In 1 1 S3 the head of the house was a Baron of the Court 
of Common Pleas. In 1588, when the Spanish Armada 
threatened to annihilate Protestantism and the power of 
Elizabeth at one blow, Roger Townsend, the owner of the 



estates, was a celebrated sailor, and with Drake and 
Hawkins brought his own ships into the service of his 
sovereign. He was knighted for his gallantry by the British 
Admiral Lord Howard. 

In 1603 Robert Townsend was Knighted by King 
James I. 

The Townsends have been one of the most distinguished 
families in English history, and have numbeied in their 
ranks Secretaries of State, Lord Chief Justices, Members of 
Parliament, Lord Lieutenants of Ireland, and Peers of the 
Realm, and have been distinguished in the Army as 
Generals and Governors of forts ; in the Navy, besides the 
first naval hero Roger Townsend of Armada fame, there 
have been Admirals of the White and Admirals of the Blue. 
George Townsend took to a maritime life and distinguished 
himself in several actions during the war with France, 1724. 
As Commodore of a squadron of His Majesty's ships in the 
West Indies, he took a large fleet of French merchant ships; 
in 1765 he was appointed Admiral of the White and in 1766 
Admiral of the Blue. 

Augustus Townsend made several voyages to China as 
Supercargo and Captain in the service of the East India 
Company, in which situation he died at Batavia in the 
Island of Java about 1766. In the like manner, as Super- 
cargo of a ship in those far off seas I went into Batavia in 
1835, and like my kinsman Augustus Townsend was taken 
sick of fever and went to the hospital, but more fortunate 
than my predecessor and cousin, I recovered sufficiently to 
to b^ taken aboard my ship, then ready for sea, and on the 
voyage home regained my health. 

John Townsend was elected to Parliament, and went 
with the Earl of Essex to the invasion of the Spanish 
possessions; in 1606 was knighted. He became a leading 
member of Parliament. 

The next Sir Roger Townsend was created a Baronet 
by King James I., in 1617. In the third year of the reign 
of Charles I. he was elected one of the Knights of the County 
of Norfolk and Sheriff of the County. He built a grand 
stately mansion at Raynham, the family seat. He died in 
1630, age 41. 

Sir Horatio Townsend as soon as he was of age took 
part in public affairs, and attained great influence from his 
wisdom and sagacity. Lord Clarendon said that he used his 
noble wealth and credit in furnishing arms and ammunition 
for the King's service. Lord Willoughby and others of 
influence were drawn to his side, and King James II., in 
appreciation of his services, advanced him to the dignity of 
a Peer of the Realm by the title of Baron of Lynn in 1661, 
and shortly after constituted him Lord Lieutenant of the 
County of Norwich, and further advanced him to the title of 



Viscount Townsend of Raynham. On his death in 1687, 
his son, second Viscount Charles Townsend, took his seat in 
the House of Peers, December ,3rd, 1697, ai] d in 1702 was 
constituted Lord Lieutenant of the City and County of Nor- 
folk; and in 1709 with the Duke of Marlboro was appointed 
plenipotentiary to treat for peace with France. In 1714 he 
w 7 as sworn as principal Secretary of State ; in 1716 he 
resigned the Seal of Secretary of State, and in 1718 was 
appointed Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, which he declined. 
In 1720 he was appointed President of the Council, and the 
same year one of the Lord Justices, and again made 
principal Secretary of State, and in 1723 one of the Lord 
Justices of Great Britain, and in 1724 appointed Knight of 
the Most Noble Ord±roftha Garter and was installed at 
Windsor. He attended the Kin* at Hanover, and peace 
being settled in Europe, he retired to his family seat at 
Norfolk. 

Charles Towushend* married Caroline, sister of the Duke 
of Argyle. He was one of the most distinguished statesmen 
and orators England ever produced. Edmund Burke said 
of him — "He was the idol of the House of Commons and 
the ornament of every social circle which he honored with 
his presence." It was said that he could carry the house 
when Burke failed to move it. 

In direct descent from this Charles Townshend and 
Caroline of Argyle his wife is the present Marquis Town- 
shend, who is first cousin to Her Royal Highness the 
Duchess of Fife, the daughter of King Edward VII. 

The Marquisite of Townshend is one of the most 
ancient as well as the most distinguished in England. 

The first marquisite was that of Westminister, created 
about the year 1500 That of Lmsdowne was the second, 
and that of Townshend the third, so that the present Peer 
takes precedence of all the others except the two mentioned. 

In connection with our own history, it is a curious fact 
that the Charles Townshend who as Chancellor of the 
Exchequer advocated the passage of the stamp act and the 
tax on tea, was on my side the tory ancestor of my children, 
while on the side of their mother (Elizabeth Palmer 
Putnam) their great grandfather was the patriot Major 
Joseph Pierce Palmer who, as one of the leaders of the famous 
Boston Tea Party, threw the shipload of taxed tea overboard 
in Boston Harbor December 16, 1773. He was the son of 
Major General Palmer, President of the first Revolutionary 
Congress in Boston. 

In the record of the Underhill Family we have seen 
that a connection with the Townseuds was made by a 
daughter of Captain John Underhill marrying Henry 
Townsend. We now fiud in the records of the Long Island 

* The name is usually spelled in England Towushend, in the U. S., Townsend. 



Townsends that Malconi Townsend married Emma Virginia 
Cox, a descendant of Samuel Cox who married Anne 
Underhill, making a double connection. 

The Townsends in tk? United States emigrated from 
Norfolk, England, from 1530 to 1635. They brought with 
them the zeal that had inspired their kinsmen to noble deeds 
agai.ist Spain in the latter part of the preceding century. 
They held indeed the most advanced sentiments of that day 
and sympathized with Roger Williams and Anne Hutchinson 
and others, and were not in harmony with the persecuting 
spirits in the colony. Brooks Adams, in his Emancipation of 
Massachusetts, states that Roger Williams' controversy with 
the authorities was two-fold. He maintained that the land 
of the Indians should not be taken without purchase. The 
old Puritans held that the earth was the garden of the 
Lord, and peculiarly the heritage of the saints, that they 
were the saints, and wherever they saw land that was not 
fenced and waving with corn, they had a right to take it. 

Roger Williams said, "Nay, no more than they had to 
go into a gentleman's park in England, and occupy a part 
of it." His views on church order were also obnoxious. He 
maintained that a Church should be composed of believers 
and that unconscious infants were not fit subjects. He was 
accordingly banished. In protest against religious 

persecution the Underhills and Townsends appear to have 
been in sympathy and stood together. 

It is interesting to those holding liberal views to note 
the change of sentiment in Massachusetts as shown by the 
recent Legislature, which res ei tided the obnoxious acts and 
passed another rehabilitating those who were banished. It 
is to the credit of the State to remove that stain upon its 
character, although futile to relieve the unfortunate victims 
of its persecution. 

Are, these memorial observances of distinguished family 
history of any interest and importance to the community at 
large? Certainly, very much so in the instruction and 
stimulus it gives to patriotic deeds. A community is made 
of individuals, and I need not say that the better the quality 
of the individual the more excellent and enduring are the 
institutions of the country. 

These grand men are the foundation and framework on 
which the social and political fabric may securely rest. 
Coming down from generation to generation with a history 
of public virtue and private worth, a community may well 
feel favored to have with them such examples as guarantees 
of the stability of their institutions. 

We find among the descendants of the Townsend family 
the name of Governor Alonzo B. Cornell of Ithaca, in the 
State of New York, a most valuable public spirited citizen 
— the son of Ezra Cornell, founder of Cornell University. 

LBAp'05 3H77^S^l 

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